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Steve Sarkisian explains the challenges of facing Georgia twice in season, compares to NFL

FaceProfileby:Thomas Goldkamp•12/03/24
Texas HC Steve Sarkisian
Nelson Chenault | Imagn Images

When Georgia and Texas meet on Saturday in the SEC Championship Game, they’ll be squaring off for the second time this season.

Georgia won the first meeting 30-15 on the road at Texas.

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For coach Steve Sarkisian, the added familiarity is something he’s used to. It’s not often in college football that there are rematches, but he’s seen it plenty in the NFL. Sarkisian spent 2017 and 2018 with the Atlanta Falcons.

“Well, I think the one thing that I’ve tried to lean into here today, as we’re in the preliminary stages of it all, is kind of take myself back to the NFL,” Sarkisian said. “You get in your division there, you play teams multiple times a year. Then over time, a couple years go by, you start playing them four times in two years. If it’s the Playoffs, five times in two years.”

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In other words, there are lessons you can learn from taking on a team multiple times. Sarkisian will look to take whatever advantage he can from his time spent in the NFL.

He knows a bit more about what it takes to prepare, and that could provide an edge against Georgia.

“You try to, A, do the things that you do well. B, you try to take in the information that maybe you can gather from seeing them in person as opposed to what it looks like on tape,” Sarkisian said. “Then making sure that you have an idea of some of your own tendencies, that you’re able to break some of those things.

“At the end of the day our job is to put our players in the best position to be successful, whether that’s physically, mentally, schematically, whatever that looks like. That’s what we always kind of fall back to.”

So what exactly will Texas take away from the first meeting with Georgia?

Simply put, Sarkisian will need his team to execute better right from the opening kick. That was a problem last time around.

“Again, I do think there are some things you can take from a first matchup, good and bad,” Sarkisian said. “Clearly there were enough things we need to fix from the first time we played ’em. You don’t get shut out in the first half, you don’t have four turnovers in the game, you’re not trailing 23-0, to get better from the first time we played them.”

Georgia and Texas will meet at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday, with a national broadcast set for ABC.